What's the name of the small chip at the end of an antenna wire?

You know, the little microchip-looking thing in a router antenna or a 90's cell phone antenna? The outside of the antenna is just a plastic shell, but then there's a wire inside with a small, rectangular or square chip on the end of it to receiver the signal, and those two parts make up the actual antenna itself. But what is that thing called on the end of the wire?

I think you're speaking of that part at the top of an antenna that prevented the antenna from falling into the cell phone's body? If so, it's called a cap. That was when you would manually extend the antenna. Then they moved to the solid-body antenna. Then, of course, now --the internal antenna.

I think you're speaking of that part at the top of an antenna that prevented the antenna from falling into the cell phone's body? If so, it's called a cap. That was when you would manually extend the antenna. Then they moved to the solid-body antenna. Then, of course, now --the internal antenna.

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No. That's not what I'm talking about at all.

Like this.

They go inside of antennas like this*:

(*not just ones with the hinged part, I mean straight solid-piece ones too - this is just the best picture that I can find and it just happens to be hinged. Straight, unhinged ones are like what you'd find on a walkie-talkie or a late-1990s/early-2000s cell phone.)

The black plastic part is just a case that holds the wire and and this chip-like thing inside. The signal is received by the chip, and transmitted to a device via the wire.

I'd describe the green rectangle as an "antenna circuit board". The pattern on the close up image is called a "meander line". The square gold connector on the other end is an "IPEX" or "Hirose U.FL" connector, but as far as I understand, both names describe the same device.

The wire between them is simply there to carry the signals to and from the antenna circuit board - the extra surface area on the board makes it a better antenna than the wire.

I don't know if the IPEX existed in the 1990's, but the circuit board type certainly did.

The reason I need to know is because my book follows a vast cast of characters involved in starting a revolution. Some of the characters work in places like dockyards, rail depots, warehouses, and other places where walkie-talkies are commonly used. The resistance movement will need the walkie-talkies to communicate, but they can't just outright steal them because they're all numbered and inventoried and it will surely be noticed if one (or more, especially) goes missing.

So my idea is this: the resistance-aligned workers in such areas, who use these devices on the job, catch a minute or two where they are able to take the walkie-talkie somewhere relatively unsupervised (like a storage room or something), open up the back of the device to remove the antenna casing, then disconnect the antenna wire/circuit board piece, and put the device back together without that part inside. They then slip the wire into their pocket, and return the device to where it came from. On the outside, the device looks fine, but the next time someone tries to use it, it will quickly be discovered that it no longer works, and the device will then be discarded. The discarded walkie-talkies can then be retrieved by the resistance, and re-united with the antenna/circuit board piece, thus allowing the resistance a safe way to obtain communications devices without a high risk of discovery. Repeated once a week or so at multiple locations, they could acquire several dozen walkie-talkies in a few months. Meanwhile, the apparent "device failures" will simply be blamed on solar/electromagnetic activity, radio interference, or other fairly benign factors.
Does this idea sound logical and believable?

(side note, also on the subject or terminology: is there a simpler word for "walkie-talkie"? A single word, preferably? I've heard them called "walkies" and "talkies" before, but those both sound a little bit odd by themselves, and while I've also heard them called "handsets", that sounds too general.)

The reason I need to know is because my book follows a vast cast of characters involved in starting a revolution. Some of the characters work in places like dockyards, rail depots, warehouses, and other places where walkie-talkies are commonly used. The resistance movement will need the walkie-talkies to communicate, but they can't just outright steal them because they're all numbered and inventoried and it will surely be noticed if one (or more, especially) goes missing.

So my idea is this: the resistance-aligned workers in such areas, who use these devices on the job, catch a minute or two where they are able to take the walkie-talkie somewhere relatively unsupervised (like a storage room or something), open up the back of the device to remove the antenna casing, then disconnect the antenna wire/circuit board piece, and put the device back together without that part inside. They then slip the wire into their pocket, and return the device to where it came from. On the outside, the device looks fine, but the next time someone tries to use it, it will quickly be discovered that it no longer works, and the device will then be discarded. The discarded walkie-talkies can then be retrieved by the resistance, and re-united with the antenna/circuit board piece, thus allowing the resistance a safe way to obtain communications devices without a high risk of discovery. Repeated once a week or so at multiple locations, they could acquire several dozen walkie-talkies in a few months. Meanwhile, the apparent "device failures" will simply be blamed on solar/electromagnetic activity, radio interference, or other fairly benign factors.
Does this idea sound logical and believable?

(side note, also on the subject or terminology: is there a simpler word for "walkie-talkie"? A single word, preferably? I've heard them called "walkies" and "talkies" before, but those both sound a little bit odd by themselves, and while I've also heard them called "handsets", that sounds too general.)

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But what if the Walkie Talkies aren't just discarded but sent to someone to try and fix them and they find out they have been tampered with?

I'm not really sure of a single name but I'll try to think of something.

But what if the Walkie Talkies aren't just discarded but sent to someone to try and fix them and they find out they have been tampered with?

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They're government-issued and used in government-operated areas (dockyards, rail depots, warehouses, and the like are operated by the government, instead of private citizens/companies). The government has bigger things to concern themselves with, such as expanding government infrastructure, mining, and of course generating propaganda to assert their will over the populace. The walkie-talkies are simple, ubiquitous little devices that are easy and cheap to produce, and staffing people to repair them would be considered an inefficient application of manpower - they already have people whose job it is to make these things anyway, so why not just have them make more instead of using more people to simultaneously work on repairs?

They're government-issued and used in government-operated areas (dockyards, rail depots, warehouses, and the like are operated by the government, instead of private citizens/companies). The government has bigger things to concern themselves with, such as expanding government infrastructure, mining, and of course generating propaganda to assert their will over the populace. The walkie-talkies are simple, ubiquitous little devices that are easy and cheap to produce, and staffing people to repair them would be considered an inefficient application of manpower - they already have people whose job it is to make these things anyway, so why not just have them make more instead of using more people to simultaneously work on repairs?

That's my explanation, anyway.

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Hey I'm just giving my two cents because I worked a government job where we had, we called them radios, that if one quit working they would try to see what was wrong with it before replacing it. Now if you build up the scene by saying they break all the time and it is a normal occurrence and that the walkie talkies are disposable then that is a totally different story.

They're government-issued and used in government-operated areas (dockyards, rail depots, warehouses, and the like are operated by the government, instead of private citizens/companies). The government has bigger things to concern themselves with, such as expanding government infrastructure, mining, and of course generating propaganda to assert their will over the populace. The walkie-talkies are simple, ubiquitous little devices that are easy and cheap to produce, and staffing people to repair them would be considered an inefficient application of manpower - they already have people whose job it is to make these things anyway, so why not just have them make more instead of using more people to simultaneously work on repairs?

That's my explanation, anyway.

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Anyone who's worked in government knows you throw stuff out rather than repair it Need that budget used or it gets reduced the following year!!

Anyone who's worked in government knows you throw stuff out rather than repair it Need that budget used or it gets reduced the following year!!

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That's unless you always run close to or over budget and the supervisors get their asses handed to them and threatened to get fired. The radios we used at the prison were expensive Motorola ones and they certainly weren't just going to chuck them in the trash.

That's unless you always run close to or over budget and the supervisors get their asses handed to them and threatened to get fired. The radios we used at the prison were expensive Motorola ones and they certainly weren't just going to chuck them in the trash.

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The walkie-talkies are simple, ubiquitous little devices that are easy and cheap to produce, and staffing people to repair them would be considered an inefficient application of manpower

Well they didn't break that often. Most of the time there was a failure on the part of the battery. Batteries have a 'memory.' For example if a battery normally has a charge of 24 hours, a person needs to use that battery for 24 hours before they recharge it. Now the prison I worked at, they would switch the battery at every 8 hour shift. That was causing the battery to lose it's memory and have a shorter and shorter charge time. Eventually it got so bad that the batteries weren't even lasting a full 8 hours. Those radios were our life lines literally to the the rest of the staff and the only way to get help if something happened so it was important to make sure they worked. Eventually they got new batteries and changed the policy abeout how they were changed out and the batteries kept a charge longer.